Hello all. I would like to know if anyone in the group has had experience with setting up an independent or directed study high school course around the First Robotics activities. My High School Administrator is a First Robotics advocate and would like to explore this idea.
I did an independent study at my high school last year. I designed and built a small mecanum robot using the team’s spare parts and worked on control algorithms for this testbed. During the season I was given a bit of leeway to work on the competition robot so long as I kept up with my independent work. None of our technical mentors are team mentors, so I did my work in the woodshop under supervision of the woodshop teacher. Overall, the experience gave me a bit of time to work with control algorithms that we experimented with on the competition bot, but I didn’t really learn much new. It was more of “here’s free time for you to work on robotics” than an actual learning experience. If you have access to a knowledgeable robotics mentor to actually teach you during that time, that’s a different story. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.
If you are active on an active team you could justify independent study in several aspects of build and outreach. First step would be to get a matrix from your school on what is required for independent study. From that you can write a short syllabus on goals and measures for your course. If you are active on your team, it should be an easy A, but the measures need to be there to justify it.
The ITEEA Standards for Technological Literacycould come in handy.